Blessed is the man who endures temptation; for when he has been approved, he will receive the crown of life which the Lord has promised to those who love Him. Let no one say when he is tempted, “I am tempted by God”; for God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does He Himself tempt anyone. James 1:12-13

Tuesday, March 31, 2015

Hi friends! It is mild here this week with a bit of rain. I do not mind though. That means the grass will become green again.

We celebrated our church friend Hosea's birthday on Sunday. Did you know that we have a lunch after every Divine Liturgy Service on Sundays? We do! And Brian and I have really experienced many new-to-us foods this last year since becoming Christian Orthodox. Our church is a Russian Orthodox Church. I have become a HUGE BORSCHT FAN! Matushka's is the best of all! Matushka is the title given to the priest's wife. Did you know that? I never did before last year. So if you want to, you can sign up to provide the meal when it is your special day. Wow! Hosea and his wife Marina are excellent cooks. It is of course still Lent. We abstain from meat, fish, eggs, dairy, oil and wine for all of Lent. Let me tell you it can be challenging to cook for Brian and I. At least for me. I am still new at this! I still cook a separate, "normal" meal for the kids. What do I miss the most? Ask Anne. She knows. It is CHEESE OF COURSE!!! Love cheese! Don't you have to if you are born in and lived in Wisconsin your whole life?! So I have obtained a few new recipes this year. Kinda fun actually.

You may recall our friend Frances sent me pink fabrics to use in my Epic Pink Charm Quilt. I sent her a little thank you gift made by me. A bookmark made just for her. :) I forgot to take a picture of it! duh. Frances kindly took two pictures for me to share with you. Thank you Frances!

I used a combination of black and white and grey fabrics from my stash. I stitched her initial and a delicate silver cross, one over one on 28 ct white evenweave.

I received more pink fabric goodness! This time it came all the way from California from our friend Annette. Just take a look!

Thank you so much Annette! Now I only need 58 more pink fabrics!

This sweet, little chipmunk lives under our front porch. Shh! Don't tell Brian. I have seen him a few times now, in the morning when I raise the shades in the front room. He comes out and watches the sun rise. Yes! For real. I am sure he is warming up or something. He stays like this for about 4 or 5 minutes. :)

I read The Edge of Dreams by Rhys Bowen last week. A good mystery book. Another Molly Murphy one. I have finished the book of Joshua now in the Bible. I have begun Judges.

I am still working on secret gifts for friends. Cannot show any more at this time. ;)

I saw a new-to-me pain management doctor one week ago. She gave me the most extensive physical exam I have ever had since I fell and was injured 10 years ago. She feels the pain is not under control because it is coming from my left hip not my left SI joint. Well then. I am to get a test cortisone/lidocaine injection tomorrow in my left hip. I am anxious of course. These hurt very much. The pain is deep and intense. I just keep telling myself it is over in one minute. That one minute really stinks though, to put it mildly. I would appreciate any and all prayers. Thank you so much. The doctor also is weaning me off of Cymbalta. She asked me why I am taking Cymbalta and Neurontin. I said, "Because they told me to!". I guess I do not need to be on both at the same time. I am hopeful. (also nervous!)

Wednesday, March 18, 2015

Hi friends! I made up a little freebie for my mom last week. My mom is really into her Irishness. (She is 25% Irish.) And she has become a crazy cat lady, so what better gift for her than an Irish Cutie?

This looks like their cat named Cutie. ;) You can find this freebie HERE. I have had this pattern printed off for years now. This seemed perfect! And I gave it to her on Sunday. She loves it!!! She always tells me she is so proud of me and my talents. tee hee! It is nice to have appreciative recipients.

This was stitched two over two on 28ct Light Teal Green Meran linen using DMC. I got the sweet shamrock fabric at JoAnn for the back.

This is my little St. Patrick's Day/March display this year.

I received some pink fabric for the Pink Tumbler Charm Quilt from our friend Carol.

I also received some pink fabric from our friend Frances. You can see she tucked in a sweet chart too.

Thank you again Carol and Frances! You ladies are helping me get closer to making that Epic Pink Quilt!! I now need 142 different pink fabrics.EDIT: I bought some more new pink fabric. I now need 106! Yay!

I have finished reading Numbers and am now reading Deuteronomy. Every day! :)

I can actually see tiny bits of green trying to come up in a few spots out in the garden. All the snow is gone from our yard. Yay!

Saturday, March 14, 2015

Hi friends! It has been sunny and warm(er) here! Love it! Much of our snow is melting! Yay! This has had me, my next door neighbor and the next neighbor down doing the same thing. All three of us ladies have been picking up dog poop in the backyards. Yucko!!

So I have two cute hogs to share with you. :) The first is a groundhog. This is a free pattern from Bent Creek. You can find the pattern RIGHT HERE. I found the pattern through our friend Yuko.

Isn't he just adorable?! I could not resist this stitch. Even though I could care less what a groundhog has to say about Spring arriving early or late!!!!

I used neutral, solid fabrics and my Sweet Liberty-Tuffets pattern to make up this pillow. It turned out the slightest bit wonky. Oh well. I don't know how that happened. I usually get freaky about stuff like that. This time I am letting it be. I still find it cute. :)

This little fella is stitched two over two on 32ct Lambswool linen. I used DMC 3865 and Crescent Colours Milady's Teal. Which I think is a dumb name. No teal involved at all. Just variegated grey. Whatever!

The only pretty sign of Spring around here is this orchid in bloom.

That is the same flower. I took the two pictures in different lighting. The first picture shows the color more accurately. I am so glad this and my other orchid have survived and thrived for almost one year now. I was given one by Brian and this one by my mom. Interestingly they were both given to me when I had cancer surgery last year. I should mention that I just went for another skin exam by the dermatologist and all is well, no more melanomas. I go for yet another exam in 3 months time.

This is the second hog.

The Margaret Sherry freebie you can find HERE. I found this perfect grey frame for him at Michael's. I will be giving him to my hairdresser before the end of this month. :)

Several of you generous, kind hearted friends are gifting me with pink fabrics to be used in my Epic Pink Quilt. I thank you once again. Because of your gifts, I will be able to start that Pink Charm Tumbler Quilt all the sooner. You can see how many different pink fabrics I still need, by checking above in my sidebar. I will keep the countdown over there. :) My quilt will be all the more special when fabrics from friends around the world are stitched right in.♥ June and Peggy, I have cut tumbler patches with the pink fabrics you have given me.

I have stitched up yet another freebie. This one is for St. Patrick's Day and it is for my mom. I will be doing the finishing on that today. I will share pictures next time.

I hope you have a really wonderful weekend my friends. Thank you for stopping by today. I thanked God for you today!

Stitching and praying,
Vickie

Miss Mabel snoozing away in Jacob's jackets. She is waiting and waiting for that young man to wake up!

Tuesday, March 10, 2015

Hi friends! Hello new friends! I want to share with you what has become a dream of mine.

About a dozen years ago, I discovered charm quilts. Do you know what a charm quilt is? It is a one block quilt with no two fabric pieces the same. No repeats at all. Well once I get an idea in my head, I have a hard time letting it go. ;) So I have been collecting fabric for at least the last 7 years. And then........ nothing. I stitched. I made wall quilts, bed quilts, lap quilts, just not THAT quilt.

At the beginning of this year, I came across Carolien. She was making a Thimble Quilt. GO CHECK IT OUT!!! This is a tiny version of the Tumbler Quilt. She inspired me! Then I figured out how many different fabrics I would need to make a charm Thimble Quilt. HA! Forget that!!

So I decided on a 4 inch tumbler block. I did NOT prewash my hundreds of small pieces of fabric. They are all in the same color range. They will shrink a bit after the first wash, and I am great with that! Oh I did not tell you!! This is a ONE HUNDRED PERCENT PINK CHARM TUMBLER QUILT! tee hee! THIS is my dream my friends!

I have been busy this last week cutting 322 tumbler blocks. I need 162 more pink fabrics though. I need a total of 484 for my charm quilt. Here they are.

Doesn't look like that much, but it sure does take time to cut them all. Especially since I fussy cut each one so it would look great. So I will keep seeking out pink fabric and then cut them up til I reach the goal.

Here are all 322 different pink fabrics lined up. I took this picture one second before Henry jumped across the stack.

In the mean time I will still be stitching and then starting Jacob's quilt. He has been patiently waiting on me. :) I am currently waiting for batiks to go on sale at JoAnn. I want to do the entire quilt in blue and yellow batiks. I have never sewn with batiks. I am going to prewash the fabrics. Could you imagine if the fabrics bled, and the whole thing turned green?! Does anyone have advice for me about batiks? I would love to hear your tips.

Thank you for stopping by and listening to my epic pink dream. :) I appreciate you. I will be back soon with a stitchy finish.

Thursday, March 5, 2015

Hi friends! Hi new friends! How are ya? We are feelin' happy 'round here. =) It is supposed to be in the forties this weekend! Melting snow! Sunshine! Yay! Oh, it will still be white around here for quite a while, but surely Spring is getting closer.

Remember Dear Rudolph I stitched and finished last month? Well I borrowed that LK pattern from our dear friend Shirlee. I sent it back with a small gift I made her. Since she has received it and thanked me for it AND likes it ;) I thought I would show ya.

I'm Christian, Shirlee is Christian, I knew she would appreciate this gift I made for her. This is one of my favorite Bible verses. I always envisioned the verse stitched up with one of these:

A crown of course! This is the backside of the bookmark. I stitched one over one using Nancy's Victorian Motto Sampler Shoppe Floss "1795 Tarnished Gold". This is an antique crown pattern freebie from Sajou. The fabric I used is 28ct Country Blend linen.

I made this bookmark for Shirlee using all things from my stash. The large embroidered piece of linen on the front is vintage. It is from a tablecloth I bought off Etsy years ago. I made kitchen curtains with most of the tablecloth, and saved many pieces for future crafts.

Monday, March 2, 2015

Isn't this cute? This chart was gifted to me by our friend Tricia. I stitched this on Belfast Baby Lotion 32ct linen, two over two. I used most of the required DMC. I changed the purple and the green shades. They looked nothing like the picture. I used one WDW, pecan.

I still have Autumn String all stitched up and waiting for final finishing also now. I have ideas for these two. I will get to work on finishing soon.

I do have a question for you all. What is this pink thing between Q and r? Anyone?! It is driving me bonkers!

I promised to show you my pink stitching on the chocolate linen. So here is the latest Quaker motif I completed.

I pick this up every so often and add more. I have been planning this for over two years now. Working on it for almost 2 years now. You know how you always have to stitch this or that first, and then you never seem to get to what is for YOU? Well this is for me. I am determined it will be complete this year. Not ready to show all yet.

I am now stitching up a Margaret Sherry for a gift. It is small, but you know all the backstitching involved with the MS patterns.

We are enjoying a few days with temperatures above freezing. How nice just that is. We will take it! It is not enough to make the snow go away. That is going to be around for a long time yet.

The crows are brave enough for the trampoline now sometimes. And sometimes I am quick enough with the camera.;)

I am so glad you stopped by today my friends. I thanked God for YOU today!

Stitcher's Prayer

God Grant that I may see to stitch until my dying day.When the last thread is cut and scissors tucked away.May the work that I have done, live on.That other folk may see,The pleasure I have known LORD,From the gift you gave me!

Epic Pink Tumbler Quilt

ZERO different, pink, 5x5 fabrics still needed!!! YES! I HAVE ALL 817 OF THEM NOW!!